Most of us spend a fair amount of time trying to avoid responsibility.
That's not too astounding. What is surprising, says Peter French, is
that we tend to dodge the good variety as well as the bad.
"The problem for most of us, excepting moral masochists, is that
responsibility does get doled," he writes. "The strategy is either not
to be in the receiving line or to find a way to get as little dumped on
one's plate as possible, to trade off to others as much as one can.
Consequently, the responsibility barter game is probably the most common
experience ordinary people have with morality."
In Responsibility Matters, French investigates a variety of matters
relating to responsibility-from theoretical aspects and elements of the
concept of responsibility to specific areas of application and general
issues in moral theory. Unlike Kant and others who see responsibility as
a necessary presupposition of practical life, he believes it is a set of
practices that we use to describe and understand individual and social
behavior.
Using examples from literature, film, and current events as well as
traditional philosophical literature, he raises questions about
responsibility in political, environmental, legal, medical, corporate,
and military justice matters. He also covers other issues, including
fate, innocence, power, control, and individual and group
responsibility.
